Ethan's 3rd birthday

So I finally did the lighting McQueen cake., and the red and black turned out well! It took me hours of colour mixing and piping, as well as a problem with the McQueen pan (i hate those pans) everything always sticks. Tip lots and lots of shortening! YUK! Anyway, after a second attempt of the cake, it turned out well!

The final cake was chocolate, with buttercream frosting. The car shape sat on top of a 9x13 cake that was piped in a white and black chequered flag. The car was then carefully placed on top and then i decorated that which took me the best part of half a day.

The end result though was worth it, and Ethan loved his cake! So did my eldest as well, he demolished the biggest slice of cake he has ever had! Kids, chocolate and frosting, you can't go wrong!

Well my next big job will be to finish off my Christmas cakes. I have to make the marzipan, fondant decorations and the royal icing! The smell of the brandy is soooo yummy when i unwrap the cakes to top them up with more brandy!

Here is the cake I just made for my friend Sarab, who's had a bit of a bad pregnacy and only just alsmost human again. So I wanted to treat her and make here the best chocolate i have made so far! She is also an ugg boot fanatic (she has at least 4 pairs) so I decided to make an ugg boot out of fondant and gumpaste. The Ugg boot turned out well and was also the perfect size to be a candle holder! The fondant circles were added to for a modern twist to the cake!

The cake was filled with whipped chocolate ganache (using a good quality cocoa powder) and the chocolate cake was flavoured with raspberry extract, and covered with chocolate buttercream. The chocolate cake was from a new recipe, using sour cream instead of milk, which made it quite moist. My friend loved the Ugg boot, to, and I am sure it is the world's smallest Ugg Boot!

Halloween (2)

And for my own pre trick or treat dinner I made more lemon and coconut cupcakes (yum) as well as halloween sugar cookies and decorated them in royal icing.

Halloween (part 1)

I offered to make 24 cupcakes for Ewan's Halloween party at school. Life is so much easier with my kitchen aid mixer........I decided I wanted the cupcakes to be special, even though 4 year old would probabky devour them in one bite! So I did my first attempt of using the candy melt method after being inspired by the book Little Cakes from The Whimsical Bakehouse http://www.amazon.com/Little-Cakes-Whimsical-Bakehouse-Cupcakes/dp/0307382826/ref=bxgy_cc_b_img_b...... This is a really cute book with lots of ideas and recipes. A few of which I can't wait to try. Anyway here are my results. It took a lot of time and effort but the results I think were worth it! Especially after the feedback I got from the teachers.

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My first request......

I was asked by my neighbour to make a cake for her work colleague's birthday, nothing fancy just lots of chocolate! So that is exactly what i did, with chocalate raspberry frosting and with some chocolate buttercream roses thrown in for good measure.

My neighbour has also asked me to do her son's 3rd birthday cake (Disney cars theme) so looking forward to that at the end of the month and coming up with some ideas..........unfortunately for me Lighting McQueen is red, and I hate doing red food colouring!

Liz's Birthday

Despite being exhaused after my efforts with Austin's cake, his mum, AKA one of my best/oldest friends here decided to have a birthday also around this date, and of course who can resist the temptation to make another cake!!!

This was a simple cake but i wanted it to be totally adult and delectable for a group of girls.....so i made a Chocolate Baileys carmel cake with chocolate Caramel Baileys frosting.........yummmm is all i can say, def. could taste the Baileys but that was my intention! All 1/2 cup of it (just in the cake).....I also played around with candy melts for the first time which was fun using them as shavings and leaf cutouts! A good opportunity to practice!

Optimus Prime Truck Transformer cake

Here is the results of my largest cake yet, finished on sunday in time for my friends son's birthday! I made most of the fondant details last week, and started the rest the beginning of this week (6 days before) . The cake was a big success, and I was really pleased with the result.



It is 22 inches long in total, and comprised of 2 x 9x13 inch yellow cakes, 1 x 9x13 inch chocolate cake and 1 x 9 inch sq chocolate cake. the cakes we sandwiched together in different layers of strawberry Jam preserve and also chocolat buttercream frosting.



I also used fondant details and painted them in edible silver dust. The large square piece of fondant ont he back is Optimus Prime's face done as a stencil, spraypainted and then outlined (all edible). The pipes are made from pretzel sticks wrapped in fondant!

Finale Cake Wilton fondant and gumpaste course (Day 2)

Ok so I had problems with the marzipan, the taste was great the texture was wrong maybe it was because i did not add corn syrup? I made it last year and it was perfect and rolled onto my cake easily, this time it was a nightmare! I will have to think of another use for it! and try out a new recepie for christmas!

I ended up using an apricot glaze and 2 layers of fondant, boy fondant is hard to smooth over on a cake without creases! I guess practice makes perfect with this one, i can't see much call for fully covered cakes with fondant, i know most people prefer the taste of buttercream! Ithink i woudl much rather use fondant as a decorative tool instead!

I am going to be making a cake for my friend's son's 5th birthday ( a 3D transformer cake) and he has specifially requested no fondant, he only likes buttercream.........gosh kids are pickiy these days! LOL! That's a few weeks away yet, although I am already planning it!

Finale Cake Wilton fondant and gumpaste course

just preparing my finale cake for the Wilton Fondant and gum paste course. i have decided to do a traditional British fruit cake in an 8 inch round this time (as opposed to my usual white/yellow cake) so that the cake will last until my mum and sister come in 10 days! The fruit cake and my house smelt wonderful when it came out of the oven (3hrs 15mins of baking time) Phew!

You are supposed to allow a fruit cake to sit for several weeks and allow it to soak up the brandy on a weekly basis, so although i can't do that this time, i at least have a practice cake before christamas! Being a brit living in the USA tradional christmas fruit cakes are either very expensive or hard to find! So I decided making my own from scratch is the best way to go!

I will use apriocot glaze over the fruit cake and then cover it in the marzipan I have made which i will use as a base cover and then use rolled fondant to cover the cake. I am not sure yet how I want it to look yet, i am waiting for inspiration! The class is tomorrow! I will probably use a combination of the fondant flowers i have made in previous classes with additional decoration.